Thursday, July 17, 2014

Bergoglio's first job

We here at Call Me Jorge... have often wondered when Francis' relationship with the Talmudic Jews began. While researching the bombing of the AMIA building we came across an interesting tidbit that then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio shared during his visit to the AMIA memorial. The following excerpt is from El Papa Francisco y su cercana relación con la comunidad judía on LV12Online's website.

The
then Archbishop of Buenos Aires called the AMIA bombing as "a link in
the chain of pain and persecution that the chosen people of g-d's wins in
history," and during his historic visit to community building revealed
that his first job was in the textile business of a Jewish businessman,
which may be the source of his affection for "the community".

During the meetingwith community leaders, the priest revealed thathe had lived"Various experiences withpeople in the community."

MarkDayan, a memberof the executive committee, asked for more details ofhis statements andfound thatwhen younghe worked for aJewish businessmen. "Bergoglio said he worked in a mill and a textile factory, which were his first steps in the work force," commented the leader.

The cardinalsaid hewas 14 years old whenhe took his firststeps in the work force.

"I will never forget, because young people at that time worked on vacation and my father sent me to work on what was my first working vacation," related Bergoglio.

Call Me Jorge... has a nagging feeling that Jorge Bergoglio's relationship with the Rabbinical Jews began even earlier. Perhaps one day the full story will come out.

1 comment:

It's interesting that Francis' father would send him to work at a Judaic textile mill. In Buenos Aires, 'Jews' got started in the the textile business by selling textiles which they stole from Italian textile merchants: